Cooper Tire, Locked-Out Union Clash Over Talks

FINDLAY, Ohio (AP) — Locked-out tire company workers in at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in Ohio are in a new dispute with management — about whether it backed out of new talks.

Union leaders at Cooper Tire say they were set to sit down with the company next Thursday but now Cooper won't meet with them.

The northwest Ohio company tells multiple news outlets that no negotiations were scheduled so it didn't cancel anything. It also says the United Steelworkers didn't respond to an offer it made right after Christmas to have union members return to work under an extension of their old contract.

Workers at the plant in Findlay, where Cooper is based, have been locked out since late November. Union members had voted down a tentative three-year contract.